• Wire Wisdom • The ABCs of the IIoT • Hand Shake or Contract • Crimp Monitor Limitations • The Heart of Quality • The Power Women of the Wire Harness Industry • Market Changes Drive Innovation at Stapla Ultrasonics Corporation January February 2018 ISC Engineering Providing Expertise in Overmolded Assemblies By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News ______________________________ I SC Engineering specializes in custom molded cable assemblies and the technology that surrounds them. With quick turnaround times, they are geared for low volume, high mix assemblies in the audio, automotive, industrial, medical and military industries. What is unusual about ISC is that they are also heavily involved in transferring this technology to OEMs and other cable assembly suppliers. Given this unique business model, one can see why it was fascinating to have a conversation with its founder and President, Steve Burk. The man- Medical Multi Connector Transition Custom Molded Mil-Spec Bulkhead Harness. agement team at ISC wanted to use their experiences to expand the uti- lization of molded cable assembly technology within the industry so Steve co-founded the company in 1999 after having successfully owned and operated Inland Empire Inter- connects where they were a world leader in PCMCIA cable assemblies and the overmolding of PCBA’s. “IEI “was later sold to ARROW Electronics (Richey Electronics). “The year my contract was up I started this compa- ny with a unique philosophy of being a cable assembly company designed to sell its “Know How”. Steve re- counted, “The decision to focus ISC’s business model was based solely on the desire to utilize our strengths in solution oriented development in the interconnect industry and at the same time provide specialty products that would make it easier to gain the benefits afforded by molded cable as- sembly solutions. “ ISC will custom tool to produce molded solutions for connectors or cable assemblies, but their customers are often other harness manufactur- ers. Steve detailed, “If we have a har- ness assembly company that wants to do their own molding, we will assist them in vertical integration by rec- ommending the machines, designing and building the molds, and training them in how to injection mold the parts.” ISC will provide information on molding equipment, compounds, tooling and all other levels of expertise to get a cable assembly over molding capability up and running. They bring a different level of service to the market where customers can have ISC design a custom molding solution. The companies can terminate the assemblies themselves, and then send to ISC for molding, until such time as it makes sense for _____________ Continued on page 25 Market Changes Drive Innovation at Stapla Ultrasonics Corporation By Joe Tito Wiring Harness News ______________________________ T he proliferation of Hybrid Electric and Electric Vehicles has created quite a boon for many equipment suppliers to the wire harness industry. This has been especially true for manufacturers of ultrasonic welding equipment. The folks at Stapla Ultrasonics Corporation contacted WHN and asked to tell readers how they are set up to meet these and other industry challenges. Stapla is located in Wilmington, MA, and was founded in 1986. They are a subsidiary of Schunk Sonosystems, a member of the Schunk Group, headquartered in Heucheleim, Germany. Stapla and Schunk Sonosystems, combined, are the largest manufacturer of ultrasonic metal welding products worldwide. Stapla offers products, engineering and support services to industry segments including: automotive, appliance (large, small and HVAC), battery (Lithium Ion and others), solar and other electrical segments. New equipment setup. As I settled in for the interview, and customers have changed, and I was struck by the level of how they are addressing the new excitement and commitment to challenges. “The main way the mar- the meeting. Present in the room ket has changed for us is with the were representatives from upper insurgence of hybrid (HV) and elec- management, sales, engineering tric vehicles (EV), and that’s driving development, production, and quality. us towards much larger systems,” he Since my initial point of contact said. Ten years ago, Stapla’s typical was Jeff Roman, he kicked things off by talking about how their market _____________ Continued on page 42